{"id":130,"date":"2013-01-25T12:29:34","date_gmt":"2013-01-25T12:29:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.quietzine.com\/news\/?p=130"},"modified":"2013-01-26T03:29:23","modified_gmt":"2013-01-26T03:29:23","slug":"review-chris-coopers-lines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.quietzine.com\/news\/?p=130","title":{"rendered":"Review: Chris Cooper&#8217;s <em>Lines<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.quietzine.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/8889190.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-131\" alt=\"8889190\" src=\"http:\/\/www.quietzine.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/8889190.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.quietzine.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/8889190.jpg 450w, http:\/\/www.quietzine.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/8889190-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/www.quietzine.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/8889190-300x300.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>It seems strange to think of Chris Cooper\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <i>Lines<\/i> as a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153debut album,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d considering the artist behind it has long been a fixture in Sylva\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s music community. But <i>Lines<\/i>, recorded in 2011 at Western Carolina University and only recently released, is the first collection of Cooper\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s original jazz-fusion compositions to be made available for purchase.<\/p>\n<p><i>Lines<\/i> displays exactly what music listeners in Jackson County have come to expect from Cooper: sharp, technical guitar work; fluency across a wide array of styles; and a sense of subtlety too rarely displayed among adherents of the Joe Satriani School of Witchcraft and Guitar Wizardry.<\/p>\n<p>Cooper is joined on the recording by a tight trio of respected players \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Dan Gonko on drums, Justin Powell on keys, and Owen Tharp on bass \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but <em>Lines<\/em> is unabashedly a guitar album, from the understated opening lines of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153An Inquiry\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to the final harmonic of the acoustic postlude \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Autumn.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/embed.spotify.com\/?uri=spotify:album:7irLjGR47S8ouGkyYgyCCW\" width=\"300\" height=\"380\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\"><\/iframe>In between, Cooper\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s guitar stays largely front-and-center, though with refreshingly little of the pretentiousness that can sometimes alienate instrumental virtuosos from the casual listener. The self-consciously titled \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Theme From An Imaginary Cop Show,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for instance, is precisely the trifle it claims to be \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a fun, funky romp that immediately brings to mind a pair of mustachioed detectives chasing perps in an unmarked mid-70s sedan. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s easy to picture the credits rolling over a montage of action scenes and Aviator shades.<\/p>\n<p>This is not to say that Cooper is afraid to challenge the listener or show off his chops when the situation calls for it. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fireflies\u00e2\u20ac\u009d finds room for a few lightning-fast sweeps before quickly firing into a frantic, percussive bridge in a time signature I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m unable to identify, while \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sideways\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is an unapologetic funk\/blues rocket that plays somewhat like a mean three-minute guitar solo.<\/p>\n<p>Yet it is Cooper\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s characteristic restraint that gives \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Maple Street\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the album\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s longest and perhaps strongest track \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the dynamic range to clock in at nearly seven minutes without ever seeming to drag. The song opens with a calm, lyrical melody before easing into an initially unassuming chorus that grows in shimmering complexity with each new iteration, bookending a contemplative, almost-melancholy three-minute bridge in which Cooper finally releases the extended solo that the whole album seems to have been building toward.<\/p>\n<p>Yet by the song\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s end Cooper and the band have dialed back the intensity to transition into the chill of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Autumn.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <i>Lines<\/i> is most satisfying at these moments of transition, when Cooper answers the challenge of making music that can be compelling to the listener without a lyrical focus by emphasizing song structure and dynamics, and simply by choosing the best times\u00c2\u00a0<i>not<\/i> to shred.<\/p>\n<p><em>Chris Cooper <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/events\/490704187648685\/?fref=ts\">plays Saturday night at Signature Brew Coffee<\/a> in Sylva with an entirely different all-star cast than the one described in this review. You can <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cdbaby.com\/cd\/chriscooper\">preview or purchase Lines at CDBaby<\/a>, or pick up a copy any time at Signature Brew.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It seems strange to think of Chris Cooper\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Lines as a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153debut album,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d considering the artist behind it has long been a fixture in Sylva\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s music community. But Lines, recorded in 2011 at Western Carolina University and only recently released, &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.quietzine.com\/news\/?p=130\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":131,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-notes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.quietzine.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.quietzine.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.quietzine.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.quietzine.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.quietzine.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.quietzine.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.quietzine.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.quietzine.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.quietzine.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.quietzine.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}